One of the drawbacks to the game of golf is the rather large amount of equipment that is required to play, at least by "modem" standards. At a minimum, a game of golf requires the player to transport a number of different clubs across the course. While many players have the physical endurance to carry a bag from hole to hole, particularly long courses can be taxing. In addition, some players may be either unable or unwilling to carry their clubs over long distances.
Caddies, manually pulled carts and automobile-like driven golf carts can relieve the club carrying burden of a player. However, caddies are both expensive and anachronistic and pull carts have proven at times to be almost as much work as carrying the equipment. Standard "golf carts" which carry the player as well as the equipment may not be available at all times on all courses. Further, this type of personnel cart is often limited by course regulations to paved cart paths, frequently inconveniently located with respect to the player's ball, thus resulting in improper club selection. These factors have led to the creation of golf bag carts.
Golf bag carts are mobile structures designed to transport a golf bag laden with clubs. They come in a variety of designs including hand powered carts and motor powered carts. Hand powered carts are typically hand pulled or hand pushed. Motor powered carts typically involve powering one or more bag cart wheels by a motor.
There has been no shortage of efforts to provide the ideal powered golf bag cart. A large number of such efforts have been reflected in issued United States Patents. Many of these are minor variants from the conventional pull car, while others are radical departures in appearance and motive means. All are intended to allow the golfer to transport the clubs and peripheral equipment to the vicinity of the ball easily, while retaining the benefits of walking.
Those which resemble conventional pull carts include: U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,993, issued to lizuka; U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,247 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,473, both issued to Hollis; U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,532 issued to Perlowin; U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,056, issued to Thomas, III; U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,332, issued to Tyner; U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,821, issued to Craven; U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,583, issued to Nemeth; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,100, issued to Lewis. All of these include a conventional appearing spindly cart, with motor adaptations to provide the wheels with driving power.
Several patents which represent carts which are different in appearance and structure from the traditional pull cart include: U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,464, issued to Eden; U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,893, issued to Willis; U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,612, issued to Weiss; U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,732, issued to Oaks; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,023, issued to the present inventor, Reimers. These present different approaches to achieving the same goals, each with some success.
However, all of the prior art suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: (1) the device is too heavy; (2) the device is too bulky; (3) the device does not have an adjustable height handle; (4) the device is not easily collapsible; (5) the device does not have a steering offset correction; (6) the device lacks stability when used; (7) the device cannot be remotely controlled. None of the prior art effectively provides a golf bag carrier design which successfully addresses all the above mentioned concerns.